Service Magic / Fraudulent charges!

I signed with Service Magic appx. one year ago offering my services as a real estate appraiser. After I went a "rigorous" and extensive check to verify my credentials which cost me $50.00 I was so "pleased" that I was "accepted". Two "qualified" leads (as they call them) later from two unscrupulous mortgage brokers made me think that this company doesn't care at all about the consumers but in fact they are in it just for the money. I explained Magic "professional team" that I am not going to loose my license hitting a pre-determined value for some ### mortgage brokers and I am not willing to pay for unqualified leads. Well guess what ? According to a Magic Service email I have received today my account has been terminated and sent to a collection agency. Now what is this ? Is this how honesty is treated today ? Haven't we seen enough of the devastating effect caused by fraud ? I am disgusted and nothing is going to stop me to spread the word around about this immoral, unethical company which is Service Magic.

Comments

I am a General Contractor, and one of the sale Rep. call me to signe up with magic service, she aske me for my card # and later on when she start recording the conversation
I ask her how much is the registration? and I was told it depends with leads . since it cost too much I told her Im not ready yet. so She call me after a month and I told Her
Im not interested worst cases is they start taken out money on my account

Applied to receive quotes on kitchen countertops. Already in 3 hours I have received 3 calls from their automated system. This is ridiculous and I want it to stop NOW. I would never use their service again and will file complaint with the BBB if this does not stop.

I will probably file a complaint with the BBB anyway since this is no way to treat customers. I feel it is harassing and completely unacceptable. I really have nothing else to say except I am not a happy camper at all. I will not use any contractor associated with the company.

This is Angela from ServiceMagic customer service. I believe we spoke on August 23rd and cancelled your service request and put you on the do not call list. We have a strict policy that refrains us from sharing your information to telemarketers or other 3rd parties, however if you are still receiving bothersome phone calls please contact me directly at adoss@servicemagic.com or at 303.963.8125. I hope we can resolve this issue and I look forward to hearing from you.

I do agree with you all I have the same problem with them and now they are sending me to collection for the leads that is not legitimate and also I have found out this individual did not own a property and the bank owns the property and it is under foreclosure. They have been sending me fraud leads for years and if you look at my account you found out that, 70% of the leads were forcefully by me credited and the rest was charged for the fraud and I have not got even one leads for last year.
Class action sue is appropriate and I have been looking into that.
Harry
301-602-1842
hrk20878@yahoo.com

If you would like to be included in a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against "Service Magic" for their alleged "Fraudulent & Deceptive Trade Practices" among many other criminal & civil allegations, Please email me with your contact information & what exactly your experience was with service magic.

The “Terms & Conditions” you likely agreed to via voice recording, will likely be construed as an illegal and invalid contract by most judges, making such contract inadmissible in the lawsuit against them.

Submitted to the Service Magic webiste on Nov 5, 2010
BUYER BEWAR OF SERVICE MAGIC
"Yes, today your Representitive called asking about me returning to Service Magic. I told her that after two years with never a job that I felt that you were only interested in my money and not my sucess. When I told her that Service Magic business model was broken and couldn’t last she hung up on me.

Nice! Diane Maki another Service Magic Rep restoring my faith that I did the right thing in leaving them. Maybe you should contact her for more magical service."

SERVICEMAJIC SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM AND POOR POOR POOR POOR POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE...That is if they have some...I am a General contractor in San Diego Ca. I have had the same problem with servicemajic, i have invested money and on all leads the give you get 2 answer after you call. fake or no lead or you are competing with 4 other contractors. They have send my account to collections that is after i send request to customer service to talk to a live person and no answer back. These people are fraudelent, they say one thing when they ask you to sign up for leads and as time passes they change the stories and keep charging your credit card. They donot verify any info...

We are a contracting geothermal company out of Atlanta and we were once members with Service Magic, this was about 2 years ago. Today we found a most disturbing advertisement fraud with Service Magic using our name, our address, but their phone number. Basically the listing was found immediately under our company name, but when we called the contact number listed it went directly to Service Magic. Here is our complaint: About 2 years ago or so we were members with Service Magic and yes, they definitley do not do thorough background checks, as we found our competitors on Service Magic, without them even having a license to do buisness/contract work. Needless to say, we are licensed, insured and bonded so we felt that we had the upper hand and decided to stay with them on a trial basis. All for 6 months, then we cancelled it. When we cancelled it was due to our own bad experiences with Service Magic and even a personal family experience with Service Magic that ended horribly for them, so that was it, we were through with Service Magic, and this was 2 years ago(2009). During the year of 2010, we hired a person to help us with advertising that use to work with Service Magic from her home, fielding calls for them. We found out quite alot of bad marketing fraud that goes on - which I am not allowed to disclose- but contractors beware! Anyways, we hired this very nice lady, again back in 2010. I just want to give all of you a timeline here.. Joined service magic 2009 for 6 months then cancelled, hired a lady that use to work for servcie magic 2010, today 2011 January we found they are STILL advertising our good name and business, but with their contact information. We called the number and it went directly to a lady who stated " Thank you for calling Electrical.. blah blah". We answered back, "that's interesting, because I wanted E*** ( can't disclose my company name) heating and air and not an electrical company?" The lady at SM answered back, "Oh yes sir, sorry about that, as the company is busy with their schedule, would you like to try "blah blah" instead and I can get you set up with an appointment right away." Ok that ticked us off. So, they are not only using our company name with their phone number, but they are also LIEING TO THE CONSUMER- our would be customers, and fielding them to other contractors. After a rather lengthly conversation with this Service Magic "professional customer service rep", they promised to remove their phone number from all associations with E *** ( my business ). PAST CONTRACTORS OF SERVICE MAGIC-- BE AWARE OF THIS SCAM and FRAUDULENT ADVERTISING of YOUR GOOD BUSINESS NAME - We advise you to immediately do an internet search of your name. If you should locate any association with Service Magic, as you are not a client of theirs, but once were, we ADVISE YOU TO TAKE ACTION! Thank You.

Seargeants Remodel (ServiceMagic) aka JustinSchonna Huber have a remodeling scam. We have payed them over $8, 700 to tile one bathroom and one shower. The contract called for them to replace soffits, flooring, ceiling, etc. I realize they drag work schedule to collect payments (draw schedule) and then when you press them for time table the run.

Not to mention the quality of work is poor. They alledge to work for Sadler Homes, a large high end builder. One of the workers wife apparently works there. Don't rely on ServiceMagic reviews as the Huber's former business Infiniti Construction and J & S are prior businesses that have folded.

I signed up with Service Magic after they had sent me free sample leads which were looking good. I paid 49 dollars to sign up, they waived 50% of the fee, one lead was minimum $36, pretty high for murals.

The leads I got were all BAD. The last one was the worst. It was false, the person never had asked for the service, about 10 people called him. I was told that 1 lead goes to 4 contractors. Wrong. 1 lead is almost $400 for SM.

Service Magic rips people off who are truly searching for work, and trusted them.

Hello IronKnight-
My name is Angela Doss and I am the online customer liaison here at ServiceMagic. I'm sorry to hear about your experience with our service and I'd be more than happy to speak to you about your account and frustrations. If you could please contact me, that would be greatly appreciated. I can be reached at 303.963.8125 or at adoss[at]servicemagic[dot]com
Best regards,
Angela Doss

Its sad that a company who advertises them selves as the "Great white hope" for contractors and consumers. Continues to screw both with vigor. Ive been with them for a year. In that time I have had nothing but bad leads, expired leads (I had one person tell me that they had had the work done 6 months previous to me receiving the lead) 98% of the contacts do not return a phone call or e-mail. Those that I did make contact in their home were overwhelmed by the amount of contractors showing up to their home. I was told there would only be 3 contractors sent the lead. One contact had had 11 before me and had 9 coming the next day. All of us paid $50 for that lead. Every Time I have contact with them they try to make it right. BUT would not cancel the contract. Finally I quit paying for BS leads and now they are sending me to collections! Bad mistake. I will be posting this here, The story on my blog and on all 5 groups I'm associated with on Link In. I get 15000 hits to my web site a month. Lets see how they like that!

To all business owners finding that ServiceMagic is misrepresenting themselves as your agent -

File a complaint with the Better, Business Bureau
File a complaint with the Colorado Attorney General
File a complaint with the US Attorney General

This method of doing business is HIGHLY ILLEGAL.

They send feeds to the various local listings on a periodic basis, so if you manage to correct the information with the local listing service, it will later be changed back to ServiceMagic's contact information again!!!

Service Magic is a BIG FAT SCAM, they claim they are a service for the consumer, HAH! They contacted my husband several times and wanted to have him join, I was not impressed with how they go about wanting all the info (Lic, Ins/Bonds and your Bank Info) they charge the Contractor $50.00 for each referral, by electronic funds transfer, I laughed at the lady representing Service Magic, and told her she was not going to get any bank info from us. If my husband received an acceptance on his estimate and the consumer signed a Contract with our construction company, we would be more than happy to pay them, OH NO, that is not how they work. What really happens is that each contractor they refer for the specific job (weither you get the job or not) are charged $30-50.00. Wow, the contractors contacting the consumer could be as many as 20 plus, depending on your area. You do the math. They are making a killing and maybe one contractor gets the job, but they all paid a fee for the contact (the consumer). This is no Service!! Glad my husband listened to me and told them he was not interested in their so called service. Since the construction industry was hit so bad, due to the Banks and Wall Street colapse. Sonm many contractors are desperate for work and you will have good and bad contractors. This is my recommendation, ask for refferals, the best advertising is word of mouth. My husband has a great reputation, work ethic, and always makes sure the customer is 100% satisfied. Period. We are barely making it in these times, due to the small populated area we live in, however, we continue to make sure our customers always come first and foremost. If you hear from Service Magic, hang-up, the call isn't worth your time or energy.

I am a small business owner and I was contacted by service magic today. I am so glad i told them to call me back in a week. Sorry to hear all of these hard working people being ripped off by this company. I know as a business owner that every dime made is valuable and cant afford to be waisted with crap like this. I sure hope something is done so this doesn't happen to anymore people. Thank you to all the people that took the time to tell others of there experience with companys like this.

I was a member, about four years ago, and was scammed like the rest of you guys. I just wanted to comment on how they lie to the public also. They tell them all contracters are licensed, bonded, and insured. I was only insured, they still accdepted me. Now they are calling wanting me to join again. I told them now I am not licesed, bonded, or insured. They said it didn't matter, I could still join. Yaaaa right!!

Mary is FOS, this company has zero bussiness ethics. Ia m not a contractor but a customer that used thier website. It turned out to be a nightmare. I work graveyard and the phone rang off the hook for two weeks straight. My wife say we are still getting calls and it has been over a month. They pimped my number out to god and country. Not only did I not go with one of thier contrcators, I will never do bussiness with anyone associated with these clowns. Now I know why I was getting the hard sell you poor saps are getting popped for 60 bucks just to get someone like me who is pissed off because they recieved too many calls.

It sounds like you are referring to the exact match program. I apologize if you had any confusion around this and wanted to help clear any questions up. Here is how it works. If a service professional has Exact Match activated, we promote our member’s business profile online using different advertising and keyword matching methods. The point is to get the contractor’s info out there and create a strong online presence. This site does have a phone number that connects to our customer service team so that we can still verify the type of work and zip code associated with the consumer. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me directly at 303.963.8066 or mblack [at] servicemagic.com.